The Army Corps of Engineers began shunting part of the Mississippi River through the Bonnet Carre Spillway on Monday, as 28 of the spillway's 350 bays were opened to lower river levels downstream.

Brett Duke, The Times-PicayuneAt large crowd gathered to watch the Army Corps of Engineers open the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Norco, La., Monday, May 9, 2011.

By 11:30 a.m. the 560 wooden "needles" from the bays had been pulled and laid on top of the 1.3 mile long control structure.

More, if not all of the bays, are likely to be opened in the coming days in an effort to relieve pressure on strained levees throughout the Mississippi River Valley which has been buffeted by weeks of unrelenting rain.

"We are seeing historic flows and historic stages in the Mississippi River," said Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District. "We're trying to reduce the pressure

Bonnet Carre Spillway opens as Mississippi River swellsThe Army Corps of Engineers opened 28 bays of the 350-bay spillway structure in St. Charles Parish Monday, May 9, 2011 to divert water from a rapidly rising Mississippi River. The spillway was last opened in 2008 for 28 days.

Bonnet Carre Spillway opens as Mississippi River swellsThe Army Corps of Engineers opened 28 bays of the 350-bay spillway structure in St. Charles Parish Monday, May 9, 2011 to divert water from a rapidly rising Mississippi River. The spillway was last opened in 2008 for 28 days.

on the levees so we don't have a catastrophic failure."

Chris Brantley, manager of the spillway said a decision on how many bays would be opened or closed would be made on a day-to-day basis based on water flow.

The water from the river will race nearly 6 miles north throug the 7,600-acre spillway into Lake Pontchartrain.

Area levee district officials are urging residents not to drive or even walk on the levees, in addition to the usual high-water restrictions on excavation and pile-driving.

Corps officials said any further openings would be gradual, and that bays would be opened in various places along the structure.

"We don't want to put too much pressure on any one spot," Brantley said.

The corps has asked for permission to open the Morganza Spillway near Simmesport as well, which can divert 600,000 cubic feet of water per second, nearly 2.8 times as much water than the Bonnet Carre's 250,000 cubic feet per second, from the river.

But opening that floodway can cause flooding throughout rural communities near the Atchafalaya Basin, into which the spillway empties.

Fleming said the corps is providing assistance to communities in Terrebonne, St. Mary and other parishes with communities that are vulnerable to flooding from the Atchafalaya Basin.

"We can provide technical support. We can provide sandbags to help those communities," Fleming said.

Despite the gravity of the situation, the opening in St. Charles Parish took on a festive atmosphere, as hundreds of onlookers watched the 8 a.m. Spillway opening, perhaps attracted by that rarity in Louisiana: fast-flowing water.

"I'm 64 years old, so I thought I ought to see it once," said Richard Bourge of Houma. His friend, Jim Adams of Destrehan, has seen several openings.

"I wanted to bring my grandson, but he's in school," Adams said.

Many parents weren't as picky. Many in the crowd were youngsters wearing school uniforms.

Roland Weber of St. John the Baptist Parish, said he has seen several openings when he worked at nearby Shell Chemical.

"People do crazy things," he said of a past opening. "I saw a couple of people go through the gates in a kayak. They didn't realize that the water goes straight down. They were lucky that somebody was on the other side and pulled them out."

The Coast Guard was called in to rescue some kayakers who got into trouble in the treacherous waters when the spillway was last opened in 2008.

The high water is causing difficulty for river traffic as well, said Rear Admiral Mary Landry, commander of the Coast Guard's 8th District.

"High water has it's own challenges. All the captains have been through high water before, but no one has been through water this high in recent year, and they haven't been through the challenge of not creating a wake that will impact the levees. The levees are stressed."